Throughout the 2019-2020, posters, banners and statements in the advocacy of the political movement are seen everywhere on the streets. From time to time the print-outs would be torn away by pro-government members, yet the emptied spaces are quickly filled up with new posters by fellow protesters. Traces of overlapping sheets embodied the transmission and power dynamics of ideologies. The print-outs are later on covered by layers of paints. However, the erasure does not render people’s revolt less apparent. 

 

Earlier 2020 year, artist Giraffe Leung initiated the series “Paper Over the Cracks”. By having yellow tapes framing traces of erasure, this set of works is an artistic and spatial intervention that seeks to recall the memories of injustice in Hongkongers’ mind, and to remind fellow citizens that the restriction of freedom has long been penetrated through various means. 

 

The artist later on brought this series to the level of public participation by inviting the mass to create similar works in their neighborhood in defence of memory and freedom of expression. Members of the public responded to his initiation actively with personal creations and photography documentation.

 

《粉飾太平》這件作品始於街頭，作品的意念和媒介皆來自公共空間中抗爭的痕跡。經過2019-2020的抗爭運動，街道上的遍佈相關文宣，有些被撕去的，又迅速被補上，重疊的紙張盛載著意識形態的傳播和角力。重疊的文宣上後來被政府以一抹抹油漆蓋上，表面痕跡被擦去，可是草草的塗抹卻令過往的存在更顯眼。

 

2020年初，藝術家梁洛熙發起名為《粉飾太平》的創作，以黃色膠紙框起被塗抹的街頭角落。藉著以藝術介入日常空間與政治，這個系列希望重新勾起大眾對不公義和傷痕的記憶，提醒人們自由的空間早已被無孔不入地奪去。

 

藝術家其後在網上發起同名的公共藝術活動，邀請大眾在各自的社區進行同類型的創作，以另類文宣的方式捍衛記憶和表達自由的權利。這個活動引起廣泛的注意和參與，公眾紛紛以個人創作和照片紀錄政府企圖粉飾太平。